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Archival description area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Leon Llewellyn was born on April 29, 1951, in Grenville, Saint Andrews, Grenada, to Eric Llewellyn and Vera Renaud Llewellyn. Llewellyn attended St. Andrews Anglican School in Grenville, Grenada (1956-1963), followed by Van Horn Elementary, in Montreal, Quebec. He later attended Northmount High School in Montreal (1965-1969). He is a graduate of Sir George Williams University in Montreal (1969-1975), where he received a BA in Fine Arts in 1974 and a Diploma in Art Education in 1975. Llewellyn is married to Danielle Fortas and they have two children, Jonathan and Julia Llewellyn.

Llewellyn is an artist and retired visual arts teacher, whose career was spent working for the English Montreal School Board, where he taught at Laurier MacDonald High School in Saint Leonard. Prior to his time working at Laurier MacDonald High School, he taught art and music at Aime Renaud High School in St. Leonard and worked as a teaching assistant at Miriam School in Montreal. Llewellyn was involved with many Black community organizations in Montreal, including the Black Studies Centre, Negro Community Centre (NCC), Cote-des Neiges Black Community Development Project, and the Quebec Board of Black Educators, among others. In addition to teaching art and developing art and photography programs for community organizations, including the Black Studies Centre, Llewellyn worked as a set designer for the Black Theater Workshop and a lighting technician at the Revue Theater. Llewellyn participated in many community organized exhibitions and provided artworks for community organizations, journals, and newspapers. He was present at many significant events in the Montreal Black community, including a presentation by Angela Davis in Montreal in 1974. In the 1960s and 1970s, he drew political and editorial cartoons for Uhuru and Focus Umoja. Llewellyn was the artist responsible for the sign above the doorway of the NCC, and the logo and banner on the top of Focus Umoja.

Custodial history

Scope and content

The Leon Llewellyn fonds contains materials documenting the life and career of Leon Llewellyn. Significantly, the fonds is composed of documentation pertaining to Montreal's English-speaking Black Community. These materials document the activities and functions of various Black community organizations, including but not limited to, the Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre; Black Studies Centre; Quebec Board of Black Educators; Black Community Central Administration of Quebec; Black Community Council of Quebec; National Black Coalition of Canada; Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Association; Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Black Community Association; Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Development Project; Black Theater Workshop; Association of Black Artists; Montreal Black Photography Society; Union United Church; Black Action Party; National Black Coalition Institute of Research in the Black Experience; National Congress of Black Women; Black Community Communications Media; Black Is!; Negro Theater Arts Club; Revue Theater; Black Workers Association; Black Youth Radio; and the Black Youth Television Workshop. Materials related to the Concordia Student Union; Concordia University's Black Student Union; McGill Black Student Union, Caribbean Students' Society of McGill University; and the Black Students' Association of Champlain College are also found in this fonds. Additionally, this fonds contains various issues of prominent community newspapers and magazines, including but not limited to, Uhuru; Focus Umoja; Focus Magazine; Afro-Can; Afro Canadian; Contrast; The Black Voice; Montréal Camera; Community Contact; The Montreal Challenger; The Montreal Oracle; African Awakener; Canadian Tribune; Voice of Montreal; and The Black: A Canadian Journal of Self Expression. It also contains materials related to the publication of the book "Journey into Our Caribbean Past" by Eric Llewellyn.